Chasing Tomorrow's Treasure
by Tannacat
Summary: A collective dream to visit the same destination, yet different aspirations of one's idea of "treasure". A re-telling of Treasure Planet with a twist.
1. Chapter 1 - The Farthest Distance

Passion, drive, inspiration, goal.

These were only a few words of the extensive vocabulary his mother had lectured to him.

It drove Jim _crazy_ just thinking about it at night. In school you always get those kind of questions, especially in your last years of class and final days of that awkward teenager phase.

What do you want to do when you grow up? How do you describe your future? Where do you see yourself in ten years?

Honestly, he always drew a blank. Nothing. What could he possibly be good for? Solar-surfing was somewhat a talent of his, more of a hobby than a life-essential skill. Nonetheless a hell-of-a-lot fun past-time.

Maybe he could get into the business of building custom solar surfers and selling them for a profit? Sure didn't sound too bad. He could stick around in Montressor and help his mother with the Benbow Inn for the rest of his life.

Then again, space travel seemed to really stick out to Jim than staying stuck on the ground on a boring mining planet.

After another tiring argument with his mother, Jim found himself on one of the launching cliffs near the Benbow Inn, absently tinkering about on his solar surfer. The system was shot and he was desperate to fix it, even if it meant skipping time on waiting tables for his mother; despite the guilt he felt. He didn't want to cause a scene in the inn and become an even bigger embarrassment to his mother.

Craning his neck forward, he squinted his eyes at the exposed motor; the connector for the sail switch was jammed and the throttle in a wrinkled mess. With a deep sigh, he fished around on the ground for a wrench, to untighten a bolt on the cover board for the solar sails. This time, he would be walking away without scratches _and_ his solar cells without accident.

"Wow!"

Jim turned his head with raised eyebrows. It was Ethan, the little alien boy who hung out around Jim's hometown. Different than most of the alien brats who stayed at the Benbow Inn, Ethan was a good kid. Or so Jim had heard from his mother. With a small sigh, he pulled himself out from under the flying craft.

"Did you make that solar surfer?"

"Mm-hmm." Jim grunted distractedly. Maybe if he ignored him, he would go away.

With furrowed eyebrows, he pushed the accelerator button several times, taking peeks and making adjustments here and there as the little alien boy tried to follow suit.

Jamming his hands into the folds of the crunched solar sail and pushing against the two sides; Jim gratefully pulled an unharmed and undamaged fabric out from the damage. He forcefully hit the button with his fist and the hand-made sail sprung up from its folds with a satisfying _FWOOSH._

"Awesome!" Said Ethan, astonished.

The crease in Jim's forehead softened, and involuntarily he let out an amused chuckle. Maybe this kid wasn't so annoying after all.

"I got a scooter!" Ethan excitedly pointed to the small, motorized scooter behind him, but soon after, his grin slumped into a frown, "But it's busted…"

This piqued his interest, "Oh yeah?" Jim raised his eyebrow. "Well, let me take a look." He said with a wink.

Strolling over to the small scooter, he kneeled down to examine the mechanism of the motor on the craft. "Now that's cool," He complimented. His eyes landed on a detached cable branching off of the scooter's motor.

"But here's your problem, the cable's loose," said Jim, giving Ethan the cable.

With a small smile Jim stood up, "Hang on, I'll fix it for you in a second."

"Okay!"

It was really comforting, knowing that someone had the same interests and hobbies as he did. Ethan really was a cool kid.

He scooped up the wrench from his solar-surfer, and began to walk back to Ethan.

"This won't take me long, I'll just-"

Jim turned with raised eyebrows to see another, larger alien, sitting next to Ethan, who was also examining the scooter.

The larger alien turned his head at the sound of Jim's voice and smiled, "Don't worry, we got it." He said with a wave of his hand.

"Um," Jim began, hesitating. His shoulders faltered slightly and he tossed the wrench back in forth in his hands, "Sure. No problem." With a casual shrug, he turned away to place his hands in his pockets.

Creasing his eyebrows, he looked back to see Ethan's father fix the motor, which clattered back into motion with a jump. Ethan looked on, fascinated.

Ethan's face lit up, "You did it!" He exclaimed with a smile, "How come you're so smart, dad?"

"I...guess I take after you, Ethan." His dad returned the smile.

With hardened eyes, Jim turned away. He'd seen enough.

He narrowed his eyebrows, involuntarily. With a swift motion, he collected his tools before jumping onto his solar surfer, and pressing his foot onto the accelerator button simultaneously. Though the solar sails were worn down from overuse, without breaking stride, he held onto the balance hook, his self-created craft beginning to hover with a smooth hum. Bright orange bursts of light flashed upon the sail's fabric as sunlight touched its surface and the surfer began to rise higher.

Rapidly pressing the accelerator button with his foot, with a thundering blast, the craft loudly scraped along the surface of the cliff and took off into the sky with a burst of bright yellow solar power.

Jim frowned. It wasn't like Ethan knew about his father. It had been a substantial amount of time since his father had left him and his mother on Montressor, and it had certainly been awhile since he actually cared about his father's absence.

When would be the time he could finally let go? He had to face it, his father had been gone for twelve years, he was too much of a yellow-tailed bastard to come crawling back to his family. No, his pride was more important.

As the wind sailed through his bangs, Jim felt the tension in his forehead begin to fade and he took deep breaths to calm himself down. There was no need in becoming worked up anymore, he had to face it, his father was a coward.

Any direction he wanted to go, he could take it. The ground could no longer keep him trapped. Neither could his asshole of a father.

Jim sailed over cities and multi-colored plateaus, that he never got tired of looking over. Seeing all the people and the aliens walking about his home planet, who were just as grounded as he was, unaware of his freedom of flight.

Solar-surfing had really helped a lot in his life. He was able to forget about reality just for a moment, to forget about now-meaningless memories of his father, his future and the fact that he could not escape this planet for the rest of his life without leaving his mother.

Gripping his hold tightly onto the balance hook, he adjusted the solar sails. The wind pushed against the sails, swiftly pulling him down into the canyon below him. He felt his stomach drop and his lips began to upturn into a grin. This was going to be fun.

Adjusting the balance hook with several flicks of his hand, the wind filled the solar sails and caught the flying craft as it dipped down slightly, carrying him across the ravine. He pulled down on the balance hook, allowing the craft to fly up towards the sky.

Like a bird flying up above off into accelerating flight, his solarcraft reached higher and higher into the wispy clouds, on a never-ending journey to go in any direction its flier wanted to soar.

Jim turned his head back to the shrinking ground below him, and the clouds that hung about the atmosphere. A little more ways to go.

Firmly pressing his foot onto the accelerator button, the fiery blasts that endlessly streamed from the craft abruptly stopped and the solar sails furled back into its original holding with a sliding clank.

He craned his neck back to look at the sky and spread out his arms as he began to fall back. The craft flipped forward and when he held his arms in, began to spin rapidly. His ears nearly becoming deaf by the constant howling of the fierce air that followed.

With the rule of gravity still intact, the surfer changed direction when Jim unfurled his arms, allowing the solar craft to fall more balanced.

Tilting the craft down with his foot, it began to spin on a fixed point, allowing its acceleration to increase. He twisted his torso and the craft flipped over, spinning faster and faster with a series of whirs, loudly whipping against the wind. Jim felt his stomach drop again as he spun upside down, his surrounding becoming a series of distorted colors and shapes. In the midst of about three minutes, the world in his eyes was distorted.

Just before he reached the ground; Jim turned his torso, flipped the board over and stomped his foot onto the acceleration button, immediately unfurling the solar sails and activating the power source with a resounding boom, allowing him to just barely skim the surface of the ground with his craft in the nick of time.

A howl of enthrallment escaped his lips as his adrenaline levels spiked higher, this was it. The one moment where he truly felt alive. Winding through the walls of the canyon and scraping his solar surfer against a construction tube just for the hell of it. Unheeding of the already present wear-and-tear of the craft; Jim pressed on, unfazed and fueled by exhilaration.

* * *

Hello readers, this is something new I'm trying if you're interested ^^ I'm re-writing Treasure Planet, with a few twists here and there. I'm also adding my ocs as well. There isn't really much I have to say here except that I hope you like it :D I really love this movie and I hope you enjoy my writing and please be sure to give me any constructive criticism :D

Enjoy ^^


	2. Chapter 2 - Of Criminals and Pirates

Unfortunately, his fun was cut short.

After flying through an abandoned factory, which was, Jim guessed, considered _trespassing,_ the cops managed to catch him. The cops, conveniently patrolling and ready to spring to action at an abandoned factory. Sure he had tripped the alarm, but considering the fact that they caught him so quickly, they were most likely nearby when he did.

But who else would hang out in empty canyons, riding around in the sky on possibly illegal air crafts?

Oh yeah. Edgy teenagers like him. Threat to himself.

The clinking of glass dishes swooshing around in the sink _almost_ distracted Jim from the loud whispers and murmurs of the customers gossiping beyond the kitchen.

He felt terrible.

The embarrassment his mom must have felt when the police officers dragged him to the Benbow Inn. On a business day. Which may have been the busiest day of the entire month. He could imagine what the customers were saying about them and his mom especially, about the fiasco that had unfolded in the dining room that day.

Luckily, his mom forgave him, on the upheld and over-used excuse that he acted this way because of his father's non-existent guidance. Which was really starting to become repetitive. He knew it, his mother knew it, and by this point, even the officers probably knew it. It was a surprise to him and everyone he knew that he hadn't been dragged off to jail yet.

 _Yet._

The unfortunate truth. Unless he buckled down and focused on being a decent son for once. His future lied in a jail cell, a fate that Jim was not too comfortable with. However, he was not totally jazzed about being a perfect child either, as there was no way he could live up to his mother's expectations.

He let out a defeated sigh as the dishes continued to pile about the kitchen; when did cleaning dishes become such a chore?

Well, at least it was almost closing time.

The door of the Benbow Inn rang just as the last customer left for the day and Jim made it his goal to quickly clean the mountain of dishes before his mother could have an hour long pep talk with him.

Quietly, he made his way up to the roof. It was better than being cornered in his room.

Among the smoking chimneys and cross beams holding the roof over the inn, Jim always found it his place as a way to detach himself from the noisy inn-goers from inside or detach from pretty much everything. As much as he tried to help his mom with waiting tables and cleaning dishes, he had no desire to upset his mom or the customers inside with his "teenage angst" or as Delbert liked to call it.

With a sigh, he hit his head against the side of the chimney. The smell of earth caused by the previous rain left the air cold and moist against his skin. He dreaded the pouring rain that normally followed.

He kicked a rock off the roof. Why was he so stupid? He had not meant to cause any trouble with the police, or worry his mom any further. Maybe he was just like what the police said about him, _wrong choices, dead-enders… **losers**._

For the past few weeks, he had assumed he was being careful at his mother's request and sure, there were multiple run-ins with the police, but he never really committed anything, illegal. Or at least he thought he didn't do anything illegal.

"...really don't know how you manage it, Sarah," Spoke Delbert's voice through the window.

Oh great...they were going to talk about him.

"Trying to raise a business with a felon like- felon...fellow... _fellow_ like Jim."

At the sound of his name, Jim rolled his eyes. He was _not_ a real felon. It wasn't like he stole things or killed or hurt people, he really hated the legal system on his planet. Of course Delbert had to make things even more dramatic.

" _Managing_ it?" Came his mother's reply, much to his surprise, "I'm at the end of my rope. Ever since his father left...well, Jim's just never recovered. He never really had his father around to teach him from right to wrong and he wouldn't listen to me so he ended up on a self-destructing path I tried to protect him from!"

There was a slight pause before she continued, "...and you know how smart he is…" She spoke quietly, "He built his first solar surfer when he was _eight_!"

"And yet, he's failing school, he is constantly in trouble, and when I talk to him, he's like a stranger to me!" Sarah exclaimed.

Jim hunched his shoulders and breathed a sigh of disbelief. It really felt like he was going to become a criminal, no one seemed to believe in him. Guilt was pretty much all he had.

"I don't know, Delbert. I've tried everything-"

Suddenly, a cranking, dull spacecraft came sputtering in from the sky. The spacecraft, shaking as it tried to fly smoothly before crashing into one of the Benbow Inn's ports.

Without a second of hesitation, Jim leaped off the roof, running towards the wreckage.

"Hey!" Jim yelled. "You're okay in there right?" He asked, banging on the window of the craft.

He leapt back in surprise as a huge, lumbering figure unceremoniously fell out of the spacecraft, a small chest tumbling out after.

Jim leaned down to try and help the alien, when a forceful tug on his shirt dragged him forward to involuntarily make unwanted eye contact with the alien's old, reptile-like eyes.

"He's a-comin'" The alien grumbled. "Can you hear him? Those gears and gyros, clickin' and whirrin'...like the devil himself!"

"Uh, hit your head there pretty hard, didn't ya?" Jim said, hesitantly.

"He's after me chest…" He said, ignoring Jim's comment and straining to pick up his chest, "That fiendish cyborg and his band of cutthroats."

"But they'll have to pry it...from old Billy Bones' cold, dead fingers afore l-argh!" Jim winced as the alien went into a fit of coughing before flopping onto the ground.

Jim rushed to Billy's side, "Here, give me your arm." Sure Jim was considered a criminal, but he wasn't heartless. As he lifted the alien to its feet, he looked back at the distance to the inn as the sky opened up and rain began to pour. He sighed,

"Mom's gonna love this."

Wishing he didn't overestimate his own strength, Jim trudged slowly through the slippery, mud path. "Stupid rain." He grumbled.

Practically carrying a 250-something turtle on his shoulder would have definitely been easier if it wasn't raining.

Great. First he gets in trouble with the police, already doesn't help much with the inn, and adding something else to the list; a deranged turtle pirate who might kill everyone.

Oh, and don't forget to add potentially ruining the recently clean, wooden floorboards with the mud from his boots caused by said rain.

But more importantly...

The turtle he was helping walk, groaned in pain. There really wasn't much Jim could do, the inn was in the middle of absolute nowhere, no where near any medical stations. He wasn't even sure if his mother could do anything with the stuff they had at the inn. Their little family never really had health problems to worry about. Despite knowing this, taking Billy to the inn was the only hope Jim had.  
"I'm sorry…" He apologized, "There's not much I can do, but we'll be at the inn soon. Don't worry."

Billy turned to Jim, "You're a good lad," He spoke.

All Jim could do was offer an awkward half smile.

"I'm really not."


End file.
